Five days later.
Baoying County.
During the mid-Tang Dynasty, this place was originally Anyi County under Chuzhou. During the reign of Emperor Suzong and around the time Emperor Daizong ascended the throne, there were three out of ten local people who presented national treasures and jade to the court. Because Emperor Daizong was once the king of Chu, this was considered auspicious by the court. The new emperor ascended the throne and changed the name to "Baoying". Anyi County was renamed Baoying County.
After the founding of the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was the capital, and it relied on grain from the south. As much as six million shi of grain was transferred to Kaifeng every year. Bianqu, Huai River, and the cities along the canal all became wealthy because of this. Unfortunately, the Song Dynasty lost the Central Plains, and this grain route was abandoned. The Yellow River frequently burst its banks, causing the river water to flow into the Huaihe River, and floods continued in the Huaihe River Basin. The people of Baoying County can only continue to raise the dikes and compete with the water for land. Even so, the county town is now surrounded by lakes and continuous floods.
Baoying County became a city surrounded by water, which highlighted its position in controlling the Huaidong Military Corridor between the Song and Jin Dynasties. As a result, the vitality gradually recovered over the years, and even many officials who were supposed to take up their posts in Chuzhou often stayed here.
On this day, Jia She, the father-in-law of Baoying County, was returning from official duties somewhere. He walked across South Street in a blur, entered the famous garden in the south of the city, and headed towards the Babao Pavilion.
The magistrate of Jia County is in charge of the civil affairs of a county and is considered a prominent figure in the local area. But he likes to interact with ordinary people and has no airs. So when people saw him, they were willing to say hello.
Not today.
It was all because Jia Zhixian had a gloomy look on his face, and there were large bruises on his left and right eye sockets, as if he had been punched twice in the face.
So no one dared to encourage his misfortune until he turned into the waterside pavilion behind the Babao Pavilion and sat down. After a while, a merchant in Qingqiu came in slowly. When he saw Jia She, he suddenly laughed: "County Lord, what's wrong with you? Could it be that the grape trellis at home has fallen down?"
Jia She slapped the table: "Zhou Keshan! Thank you for laughing! This is the trouble your Dinghai navy caused me!"
"Ding Haijun? Isn't that Dajin's Jiezhen in Shandong? I am a good citizen of the Song Dynasty. I just make some hard money at sea. How can I have anything to do with them!"
Jia She sneered, facing Zhou Keshan with two dark circles under his eyes.
Zhou Keshan looked at each other without giving in and said: "These two meals are not light! County Lord, I have heard of a folk remedy. Use cooked chicken to peel off the shell and put it on the eye socket and press it. Maybe... …”
"Shut up!" Jia She became angry and slapped the table and shouted: "How long are you going to lie to me? Didn't Xueshi Ding and his party board your ship? As a result, they boarded the ship and went north to recruit civil servants, and all the people who came were you. People from Ding Haijun! Did you know that this group of people went to Beijing under the guise of envoys from the Song Dynasty and captured the emperor of the Jin Dynasty!"
"So what? The man who was sailing on the sea happened to be hit by the Ding Navy. It was definitely not me..."
"If you weren't the one who ordered the navy, how could you have calculated the return journey of the envoy so accurately? You deceived the envoys in Huaidong and along the coast as fools, so that's it. Do you think I, Jia Shechuan, don't know how to do it? Of!"
"County Lord, don't believe me when I tell you. Isn't this a coincidence..."
Jia She pointed at his house and yelled: "Scholar Ding was frightened half to death by what you did in Zhongdu. He kept talking about me, Jia She, for harming him all the way back. When we first met, he punched me twice! That's right! Two punches!" Zhou, you look at me with black eyes and say something, don’t you dare try to say something perfunctory again!"
"Cough cough, cough cough..."
Zhou Keshan said seriously: "Your Majesty, I am really a good citizen of the Song Dynasty. If you really don't believe it, there is nothing I can do."
"This is an admission!" Jia She pointed at Zhou Keshan.
"Your Majesty, you are making false accusations based on groundless accusations!"
The two sides quarreled for a few words, glaring at each other like cockfighting cocks. After staring for a while, Jia She suddenly smiled bitterly and pointed to the seat: "Hey, please sit down."
"Your Majesty, you called me urgently. There must be something important. You might as well tell me directly."
"Five days ago, people from Sizhou, Shouzhou, Yingzhou and other places in Dajin, as well as the Tang and Deng areas, came with news. What they said was that your Marshal Guo was ruthless and overbearing. He had seized the power of Dajin and gathered a crowd. Hundreds of thousands, eyeing the Central Plains."
"What about Marshal Guo? What does it have to do with us?"
"You don't understand. Since Jiading, the Song Dynasty has only sought stability from the Jin Kingdom and nothing else. As long as there are no major changes in the two countries, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty can roam freely. But your Marshal Guo broke this stability and So many generals in the Kingdom of Jin have pushed them to such a nervous state."
"I still don't understand. What does the people of the Jin Kingdom have to do with the Song Dynasty if they fight life and death?"
The reason is actually very simple. The military force of the Song Dynasty is probably not as good as that of the Jin Dynasty, so what the Jin Dynasty is afraid of, the Song Dynasty is only more afraid of. If a suddenly powerful official could force the heavily-armed Jin Kingdom to stay in Nanjing so nervously, this person would be ten times more terrifying to the Song Dynasty.
The Jurchens' force was already a nightmare to the Song Dynasty, but after decades of getting along with them, they endured it and gradually got used to it. But Da Song never wanted to see a neighbor who was more fierce than Da Jin.
Jia She could hardly help but come up with his theory that the vicious neighbor had been replaced by a vicious tiger. When this theory is put into practice, it will immediately make many people feel sad, but it is too embarrassing to talk about it now. So he thought for a moment and changed his angle.
"Last time you fought in Shandong, the remnants of the Red Coat Army who fled to the Song Dynasty took their families and their families, no less than tens of thousands of them! How much food did the court spend to resettle them! Now your marshal must fight with the general to protect his power. Generals from all over the Jin Kingdom are fighting each other, and countless refugees will be running around. How can I, the Song Dynasty, endure this?"
Zhou Keshan asked back: "So, how will the Song Dynasty respond? Since the county magistrate is looking for me, he must have some advice."
"The Song Dynasty can't do anything, but your grain smuggling business on the sea will be greatly reduced. On the other side, although there has always been nothing you can do to deal with the maritime merchants, but the country has been turned upside down to this extent, the Song Dynasty Something has to be done.”
"this……"
Zhou Keshan pondered for a long time.
He did not doubt Jia She's judgment at all. After he opened up maritime trade on behalf of Ding Haijun, he successively had many interactions with border officials of the Song Dynasty, among whom Jia She was the best. Although this man has his faults, he is extremely smart and has a very accurate vision. Although he is just a small person in the local area, he can judge the thoughts of many high-ranking and wealthy people walking in the direction, but it is like looking at the lines on the palm of his hand.
Since Jia She talked about grain trade, it means that there will definitely be problems in grain trade.
And how important the grain trade is to the Ding Navy? Who doesn't know who is specifically responsible for government affairs?
If the Song Dynasty did this, it would definitely cause great trouble to the Dinghai navy regime. Not to mention anything else, the reorganization of the surrendered troops in the north, the recovery of the Beijing Road and Liaohai Corridor, the reconstruction of the defense line in Yanshan and even the continued wooing of the foreign warlords in the Northeast, which one does not require food support?
Without food, the Marshal's Mansion can't do anything!
Not to mention, Hebei and Zhongdu were battlefields where the Mongols swept back and forth for two years. Tens of millions of acres of fertile farmland, countless water canals and irrigation systems were destroyed. It will not take a year or two to restore farming in these areas. If we cannot continue to import a large amount of food from the outside world as a supplement, millions of mouths in these two areas will have nothing to eat. These people will not be able to survive this year's drought!
Zhou Keshan's forehead was slightly sweaty.
This is trouble.
It is necessary to report to the Marshal's Mansion immediately to see what Marshal Guo has to do.
In addition, I don't know to what extent the Song court's influence on maritime merchants can be overcome. If the grain trade is reduced by 12% and the Marshal's Office tightens its belt, it can still be overcome. If it is reduced by 30% to 40%, there will be a big hole in the ledger. If reduced by 50%...
Zhou Keshan wanted to jump into a rage, but he was unwilling to lose his composure in front of Jia She.
This person can give warning in advance and is already a good enough friend.
Zhou Keshan wanted to explain that Marshal Guo was not hostile to the Song Dynasty, and Ding Haijun was sincere in doing business with the Song Dynasty. As Ding Haijun's power expands, business can be bigger and everyone can make money. But what does it mean to say this to a magistrate now?
The two were silent for a while, and Jia She approached cautiously.
"I have nothing to do about things at sea. However, there are still several companies transporting grain along the canal. They can scrape together more than 20,000 stones of grain in bits and pieces. I can find a way to clear the channel and let them move as soon as possible. Crossing the Huai River, before the imperial court’s intention becomes clear..."
Zhou Keshan's eyes lit up: "Okay!"
Jia She was a little embarrassed: "However, this kind of thing must be taken care of along the way, and money cannot be lost..."
"Three thousand strings!" Zhou Keshan immediately reported a number.
"I want copper coins! I don't want treasure money, and I don't want to be a professional!"
Seeing that at the market price, one stone of rice only costs one hundred and sixty cents for two huizi. This guy opened his mouth and asked for one-fifth of the price of rice. It can be said that the lion opened his mouth! After Zhou Keshan thought about it, he knew that he was collecting money according to the tax collection standards of the market, so naturally he couldn't help but complain.
But he had a huge smile on his face: "The treasure money is of course just waste paper, and I have never used Huizi to deal with the county magistrate! Of course it is copper coins! Deliver them tonight!"
The two immediately clapped their hands and made a promise. Zhou Keshan didn't say much and said goodbye.
Thinking about the changes in the grain trade, he had to inquire from various channels, not just Jia She.
Jia She himself did not leave, but continued to drink tea slowly in the waterside pavilion.
After half an hour, several more merchants came in. These people were the ones Jia She mentioned earlier who were transporting grain along the canal. Each of them has a backer, and in the past they didn't pay much attention to Jia She, the sesame and mung bean magistrate.
But for some reason today, there were rumors in the city that something earth-shaking had happened in the Jin Kingdom, and the imperial court would respond immediately, or at least tighten the smuggling trade between the Song and Jin countries. It's also said that the nose has eyes, so it doesn't seem to be fake.
Whatever the court does, the impact may not be great. In the past many years, every time the imperial court tried to make efforts on trade, it always ended up being nothing. It's just that the person in charge collects a little money, and then the subordinates get the big part, and the government gets the small part. When the idea comes, that's it. But in a short period of time, the fleets of these grain merchants are still slowly heading north through the canal. If they don't want to make this trip in vain, they have to trouble the Lord Jia County in front of them to come forward and clear up a link.
Several merchants were polite and flattering, and chatted with each other for a long time.
Until the sun was about to set in the west, one person finally couldn't hold back his temper and stretched out his finger to signal: "Three thousand guans! Mr. Jia County, we will send out 3,000 guan and we need the grain ship to cross the Huaihe River within ten days!"
Jia She slapped the table: "How happy you guys are! However, I want copper coins! I don't want precious coins, and I don't want to be a professional!"
